Review: 'Tip Toe' showcases phenomenal Alan Cumming in delicate tale about homophobia and violence

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Set us as preferred “Tip Toe,” a fine new drama from Russell T Davies premiering Friday on Starz, begins at the end, with Leo Struther (Alan Cumming, phenomenally good), a gay Manchester bar owner, hanging dead from a streetlight outside his house, as a woman screams and his neighbor Clive Goss (David Morrissey) stands breathing heavily on his porch.Then, as so many series do nowadays, it goes back in time — 10 days here — to tell the tale that got them there.And so you are prepared from the beginning for tragedy, though not everything that happens in its five episodes will be tragic — some of what we see will be sweet and even celebratory — and one might forget for a moment where this is all heading, and even believe that what we’ve already seen will turn out differently.

Television As host of ‘The Traitors,’ Cumming loves to dress up and play lord of the castle, but in Russell T Davies’ limited series, his latest dramatic role, he aims to shake people up.The series sets off in a comparatively light mood.Chasing a one-night stand who’s stolen his laptop, Leo finds he’s locked himself out of his house, and, dressed only in his underwear, goes next door to ask if he can borrow a phone to call his friend Stephanie (Elizabeth Berrington) to bring him a spare key; here we meet the Goss family, Clive, an out-of-work electrician; his wife, Marie (Pooky Quesnel), who doesn’t like Clive; 16-year-old son George (Jackson Connor), gay and closeted; and 25-year-old son Saul (Joseph Evans), an easygoing hunk who lives at home, secretly makes money on OnlyFans and accepts everyone for who they are.

Leo and the Gosses have been living amicably at arm’s length for 14 years, though their lives are about to become closely entwined, with disastrous results.In an act of something like willful, somewhat disturbing frie...